WANDALAND PARK

Bounded by KK1 Avenue and KN 3 Road, Wandaland is 17.8 hectare riverfront park designed to be a recreational, cultural, and hydrological gateway for the planned Gikondo Wetland Park extending to the Northwest.

A challenging former industrial zone in a sloping wetland corridor, the design of the park responds with a diverse combination of programs and strategies—including a public river walk and promenade, outdoor market for local foods and crafts, engineered wetlands, a recreational waterpark for all ages, athletic fields, walkable commercial spaces, public fountains, bicycle hub, community gathering pavilion, and a reforested bosque area to celebrate Kigali’s rich history of biodynamic agroforestry and urban ecotourism. A constellation of radial points give shape to a flexible and diverse range of spaces that are further enriched as they are overlaid on expansive landform terraces carved from the slope. Like the river, the site flows toward downtown and into the planned Gikondo Park. Individual spaces throughout the site are loaded with a menu of interconnected regenerative urban design functions driven by ecology, culture, and a project aim of supporting a strong local economy.

Inside the water park, elements like the wave pool, lazy river, and vertical slides are balanced with terrain based play areas for younger kids and with engineered wetlands and retention ponds for filtering and controlling rain water movement across the site. On the river walk a small island is designed for play and riparian habitat creation supported by surrounding public steps, market stalls and small shops elevated on piloti to activate the perimeter of the site.